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While I obviously have a bit of a sweet tooth, I would categorize myself as a cookie monster, and don’t make cakes very often. Recently, Meghan found this nice little recipe on Pinterest and suggested I try veganizing it. I swapped out the eggs and butter, changed a few ratios, added a gluten-free option, and here we are! This cake is packed with grated zucchini, plump blueberries and a buttercream frosting you’d swear was made with cream cheese. No need for Marie Antoinette jokes, let’s get baking.

A quick word about the various egg substitute options listed - I did a number of trial runs of this recipe before posting, with flax gel and with vinegar + soda. The flax gel yields to a denser cake with more prominent sweetness and blueberry flavor, while the vinegar and soda led to a lighter consistency with a bit of tang. Using lemon juice in place of vinegar yields a bit more sweetness and less tang; it’s all up to personal preference.

-Preheat oven to 350 F. -Grate ~2 C. of zucchini (2 small or one medium-large) into a bowl or colander, excluding the core(s). -Transfer to a thick kitchen towel, wrap and place something heavy on top to press the liquid out of the zucchini. -In a large bowl, combine the egg substitute, oil, vanilla and sugar. -Add the flour, salt, powder and additional soda and mix until smooth, then fold in the zucchini and blueberries. -Pour into two oiled 8” cake pans and bake for 35-45 min until golden brown, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes away clean.I would suggest cooling the finished cakes in the fridge while making the buttercream.

-Using a hand or stand mixer, combine the margarine and coconut oil until smooth, then add the vanilla, salt and lemon juice.-Sift the powdered sugar in ½ C. at a time until the frosting is thick and creamy; I used 2 ½ C. as I wanted it to be a bit less sweet, but you can go up to 3 C. per your taste and desired consistency. -I zested the lemon using a microplane, but if you don’t have one, make sure to finely chop it, as you don’t want people getting giant chunks of lemon zest in their frosting. -Fold in by hand and remove your cooled cakes from their pans.-Frost one cake with half of the buttercream, place the second cake on top evenly and frost with the remaining buttercream. While it can be served at this point, I like to put it back in the fridge to cool the buttercream a bit for cleaner cutting.

This cake is pretty fancy, so make sure you stick out your pinky while smashing.